28 June 2011

The fourth estate down under

The roof's on at Wimbledon and the rain is thundering down here too, complete with celestial fireworks.  Just another summer's day in Britain!

Anyway, I'm going to continue my praise of the Australians and their Trove newspaper site.  Go to: http://www.trove.nla.gov.au to see what I mean.  I have had just *so* much fun with it!

The latest discovery was one of quite a few detailing the life and loves of one of the Pioneer families of Western Australia.  Not within my tree, alas, but no less fascinating for being antecedents of one of my friends.  I'm deliberately not mentioning names at this point because the "latest discovery" was three articles questioning whether one of the sons had actually abducted a young girl .....

Quite heart-rending, actually, as the girl herself was an orphan who was being treated badly by the woman who had taken her in. The first article rather suggested that the young man was a peeping tom, as well as a child abductor, but I recognised other names and realised he was just looking to see if his sister was at home!

In the end, all charges were dropped against him, although I feel sure he was warned to be more careful in future!  Sadly, I don't recall whether the girl's life improved ....

My strawberries and (free) cream are calling to me.

More soon.


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